perlsymbian

NAME

DESCRIPTION

This document describes various features of the Symbian operating
system that will affect how Perl version 5 (hereafter just Perl)
is compiled and/or runs.

NOTE: this port (as of 0.4.1) does not compile into a Symbian
OS GUI application, but instead it results in a Symbian DLL.
The DLL includes a C++ class called CPerlBase, which one can then
(derive from and) use to embed Perl into applications, see symbian/README.

The base port of Perl to Symbian only implements the basic POSIX-like
functionality; it does not implement any further Symbian or Series 60,
Series 80, or UIQ bindings for Perl.

It is also possible to generate Symbian executables for "miniperl"
and "perl", but since there is no standard command line interface
for Symbian (nor full keyboards in the devices), these are useful
mainly as demonstrations.

Compiling Perl on Symbian

(0) You need to have the appropriate Symbian SDK installed.

These instructions have been tested under various Nokia Series 60

Symbian SDKs (1.2 to 2.6, 2.8 should also work, 1.2 compiles but

does not work), Series 80 2.0, and Nokia 7710 (Series 90) SDK.

You can get the SDKs from Forum Nokia (http://www.forum.nokia.com/).

A very rough port ("it compiles") to UIQ 2.1 has also been made.

A prerequisite for any of the SDKs is to install ActivePerl

from ActiveState, http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePerl/

Having the SDK installed also means that you need to have either

the Metrowerks CodeWarrior installed (2.8 and 3.0 were used in testing)

When the Windows and Arm DLLs are built do not be scared by a very long

messages whizzing by: it is the "export freeze" phase where the whole

(rather large) API of Perl is listed.

Once the build is completed you need to create the DLL SIS file by

make perldll.sis

which will create the file perlXYZ.sis (the XYZ being the Perl version)

which you can then install into your Symbian device: an easy way

to do this is to send them via Bluetooth or infrared and just open

the messages.

Since the total size of all Perl SIS files once installed is

over 2 MB, it is recommended to do the installation into a

memory card (drive E:) instead of the C: drive.

The size of the perlXYZ.SIS is about 370 kB but once it is in the

device it is about one 750 kB (according to the application manager).

The perlXYZ.sis includes only the Perl DLL: to create an additional

SIS file which includes some of the standard (pure) Perl libraries,

issue the command

make perllib.sis

Some of the standard Perl libraries are included, but not all:

see L</HISTORY> or F<symbian\install.cfg> for more details

(250 kB -> 700 kB).

Some of the standard Perl XS extensions (see L</HISTORY> are

also available:

make perlext.sis

which will create perlXYZext.sis (290 kB -> 770 kB).

To compile the demonstration application PerlApp you need first to

install the Perl headers under the SDK.

To install the Perl headers and the class CPerlBase documentation

so that you no more need the Perl sources around to compile Perl

applications using the SDK:

make sdkinstall

The destination directory is C:\Symbian\perl\X.Y.Z. For more

details, see F<symbian\PerlBase.pod>.

Once the headers have been installed, you can create a SIS for

the PerlApp:

make perlapp.sis

The perlapp.sis (11 kB -> 16 kB) will be built in the symbian

subdirectory, but a copy will also be made to the main directory.

If you want to package the Perl DLLs (one for WINS, one for ARMI),

the headers, and the documentation:

make perlsdk.zip

which will create perlXYZsdk.zip that can be used in another

Windows system with the SDK, without having to compile Perl in

that system.

If you want to package the PerlApp sources:

make perlapp.zip

If you want to package the perl.exe and miniperl.exe, you

can use the perlexe.sis and miniperlexe.sis make targets.

You also probably want the perllib.sis for the libraries

and maybe even the perlapp.sis for the recognizer.

The make target 'allsis' combines all the above SIS targets.

To clean up after compilation you can use either of

make clean

make distclean

depending on how clean you want to be.

Compilation problems

If you see right after "make" this

cat makefile.sh >makefile

'cat' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

operable program or batch file.

it means you need to (re)run the symbian\config.pl.

If you get the error

'perl' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

operable program or batch file.

you may need to reinstall the ActivePerl.

If you see this

ren makedef.pl nomakedef.pl

The system cannot find the file specified.

C:\Symbian\...\make.exe: [rename_makedef] Error 1 (ignored)

please ignore it since it is nothing serious (the build process of
renames the Perl makedef.pl as nomakedef.pl to avoid confusing it
with a makedef.pl of the SDK).

PerlApp

The PerlApp application demonstrates how to embed Perl interpreters
to a Symbian application. The "Time" menu item runs the following
Perl code: print"Running in ",$^O,"\n",scalarlocaltime
,
the "Oneliner" allows one to type in Perl code, and the "Run"
opens a file chooser for selecting a Perl file to run.

The PerlApp also is started when the "Perl recognizer" (also included
and installed) detects a Perl file being activated througg the GUI,
and offers either to install it under \Perl (if the Perl file is in
the inbox of the messaging application) or to run it (if the Perl file
is under \Perl).

sisify.pl

In the symbian subdirectory there is sisify.pl utility which can be
used to package Perl scripts and/or Perl library directories into SIS
files, which can be installed to the device. To run the sisify.pl
utility, you will need to have the 'makesis' and 'uidcrc' utilities
already installed. If you don't have the Win32 SDKs, you may try
for example http://gnupoc.sourceforge.net/ or http://symbianos.org/~andreh/.

Using Perl in Symbian

First of all note that you have full access to the Symbian device
when using Perl: you can do a lot of damage to your device (like
removing system files) unless you are careful. Please do take
backups before doing anything.

The Perl port has been done for the most part using the Symbian
standard POSIX-ish STDLIB library. It is a reasonably complete
library, but certain corners of such emulation libraries that tend
to be left unimplemented on non-UNIX platforms have been left
unimplemented also this time: fork(), signals(), user/group ids,
select() working for sockets, non-blocking sockets, and so forth.
See the file symbian/config.sh and look for 'undef' to find the
unsupported APIs (or from Perl use Config).

The filesystem of Symbian devices uses DOSish syntax, "drives"
separated from paths by a colon, and backslashes for the path. The
exact assignment of the drives probably varies between platforms, but
for example in Series 60 you might see C: as the (flash) main memory,
D: as the RAM drive, E: as the memory card (MMC), Z: as the ROM. In
Series 80 D: is the memory card. As far the devices go the NUL: is
the bit bucket, the COMx: are the serial lines, IRCOMx: are the IR
ports, TMP: might be C:\System\Temp. Remember to double those
backslashes in doublequoted strings.

The Perl DLL is installed in \System\Libs\. The Perl libraries and
extension DLLs are installed in \System\Libs\Perl\X.Y.Z\. The PerlApp
is installed in \System\Apps\, and the SIS also installs a couple of
demo scripts in \Perl\ (C:\Mydocs\Perl\ on Nokia 7710).

Note that the Symbian filesystem is very picky: it strongly prefers
the \ instead of the /.

When doing XS / Symbian C++ programming include first the Symbian
headers, then any standard C/POSIX headers, then Perl headers, and finally
any application headers.

New() and Copy() are unfortunately used by both Symbian and Perl code
so you'll have to play cpp games if you need them. PerlBase.h undefines
the Perl definitions and redefines them as PerlNew() and PerlCopy().

TO DO

Lots. See symbian\TODO.

WARNING

As of Perl Symbian port version 0.4.1 any part of Perl's standard
regression test suite has not been run on a real Symbian device using
the ported Perl, so innumerable bugs may lie in wait. Therefore there
is absolutely no warranty.

NOTE

When creating and extending application programming interfaces (APIs)
for Symbian or Series 60 or Series 80 or Series 90 it is suggested
that trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names are not used in
the API names. Instead, developers should consider basing the API
naming in the existing (C++, or maybe Java) public component and API
naming, modified as appropriate by the rules of the programming
language the new APIs are for.

Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Nokia's product
names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nokia. Other product
and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of
their respective owners.

Since this is 0.something release, any future releases are almost
guaranteed to be binary incompatible. As a sign of this the Symbian
symbol exports are kept unfrozen and the .def files fully rebuilt
every time.